There are two very interesting verses about seeds that help to answer this question. One is found in Haggai 2:19 says, “Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will bless you.”

Is your seed still in the barn? When we get discouraged, we quit sowing seeds. Without seed, there is no fruit. What else keeps our seed from bearing fruit? Joel 1:17 says, “The seed shrivels under the clods, storehouses are in shambles; barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.”

There are myriad ‘clods’ that keep our seeds from sprouting. I can’t begin to make an adequate list. However, since yesterday I brought up what happens when we become lax, let’s look at what the Lord spoke through Haggai.

Haggai 1:9 says, “You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts, Because of My house that is in ruins, while everyone runs to his own house.”

I want to use the word ‘house’ here as our relationship with the Lord. When He is our first priority, then everything else falls into place. It is when we skip our quiet time with Him, that the things we put our hands to will fail.

Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Addition means there is something else already in place. Priority means: a thing that is regarded as more important than another.

No matter what the circumstances are in our lives, the Lord must remain as our priority. He dwells in us. Yet our heart can become contaminated or filled with other things. Remember what Mark 4:19 says about the seed of the word sown among thorns. 

Here are the thorns, “And the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” Read with me how this played out in the heart (vineyard) of a man void of understanding.

Proverbs 24:31 says, “And there it was, all overgrown with thorns; its surface was covered with nettles; its stone wall was broken down.” Are you being diligent to remove the thorns from your life?

I had a back field at my old house. It was full of thistles. I could not pull them up with my bare hands. They grew wild, watered only seasonally by the Lord. They sowed weed seeds into my backyard, garden, and flower beds. They were impossible to contain. Weed seeds were scattered by the winds. They fell on the ground, rooted, and bore thorn-fruits. Weed seeds choke out good seeds.

Mark 4:27 is a universal truth of a farmer’s good seeds as well as weed seeds. It says, “…the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.”